Craig McLachlan Returns As The Sweet Transvestite From Transsexual Transylvania

"I arrived on the scene during the golden Kylie & Jason era of Neighbours", Craig McLachlan tells me over the phone from his Sydney home. Without prompting him, he happily recalls the moment his career rocketed skyward. "The show was very much on the ascent here in Australia breaking all sorts of viewership records, simultaneously it was en route to becoming a monster hit in the United Kingdom - to the point where Neighbours was seen by 20-22 million people, twice a day."

His role as self-professed "lovable larrakin" Henry Ramsay, daughter of Madge, brother of Charlene, made him a household name almost overnight, both here and in the UK. "I remember Kylie and Jason coming back from their publicity trip saying 'Craigy, it's like Beatlemania, Culture Club-mania and KISS-mania rolled into one' and it wasn't until I got over there that I thought 'Shit they weren't kidding, this is insane.'"

It's perhaps unsurprising that McLachlan should be in a nostalgic frame of mind. Currently, he's in rehearsals to reprise another old role, one far less wholesome than that of his soap opera heyday: Frank'N'Furter of Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show. This is the third time he'll have played the role of the cross-dressing, fishnet-wearing, makeup-caked, cape-toting mad scientist, since the first time he strutted onto stage as the character in the early nineties.

Back at the peak of his Neighbours fame, he received a call from legendary promoter Paul Dainty who was putting together an all-star production of the classic rock musical and who wanted the world's most famous guy next door, Henry Ramsay, to play Rocky — the buff, shirtless, slicked up creation of Dr Frank N Furter.

"I said to Paul, 'if you're ringing up to ask me about Rocky Horror Show, it's Frank N Furter or it's nothing!' and I hung up the phone. My manager said 'What the fuck? That was Paul Dainty!' It just goes to show the balls you have when you're young and full of confidence and kind of naive."

Dainty called back and happily offered him an audition for Frank, but suggested there might be a discord between his public image and such a flamboyant role, made famous by Tim Curry's iconic screen portrayal. "All the more reason to give it a crack," Craig argued.

Not only did he win the role, he thrived treading the boards as the show's "Sweet Transvestite from Transsexual Transylvania" and was recruited again twenty years later to play Frank for the show's 40th anniversary in 2014. Reprising such a daring role decades later is quite an achievement, one even McLachlan acknowledges, particularly since he was playing the eponymous lead in the highly successful ABC Drama The Dr Blake Mysteries and had packed on a few kilos.

"I remember my manager talking to the music directors at radio and they'd say 'Hell will freeze over before we play that guy's record, he's not a musician.'"

"Quite often toward the final weeks of shooting, underneath the waistcoat, what you're not seeing at home is Dr Lucien Blake can't even do his belt or trousers up," he admits. "So I've got to get down from 96 or 97 kilos down to about 80."

Had McLachlan's approach to Frank changed over the course of twenty years? "The more recent version of Rocky we brought up to QPAC just a couple of years ago was a bit high-octane energy-wise for me, even more so than the first time i did it when I was just a kid. It was a whole lot of fun, but you know, it was a very athletic approach to Frank. 'Frank for the new millennium' if you will. Just as naughty and just as deliciously intoxicating, but we just thought he should be more energised."

The sixteen kilos he's required to lose in the space of six to seven weeks demands a strict diet and exercise regime. "I'm cracking the whip on myself! I'm Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed all in one! I train six days a week. No complex carbs after midday and I've knocked the wine and beer on the head." After undergoing the transformation when he last took on the role in the 2013 production, his performance was so well-received that he took home the 2014 Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Musical.

In addition to his acting chops, McLachlan is a passionate and accomplished musician - picking up the guitar at age eight. Since then, he's barely put the instrument down, not even during our interview, in which he gushes over Richard O'Brien's riffs and classic rock'n'roll chord progressions, and performs snippets of songs down the line including Dammit Janet and Touch-A Touch-A Touch Me.

Known best for his acoustic pop cover of Bo Diddley's Mona, the highest selling Australian Single of 1990, McLachlan had been playing in pubs and clubs all through his youth and even been a session player on pop records in the UK, working with now deceased producer and bass player Mark Smith in his Battersea studio. But despite his pub rock pedigree and studio experience, commercial radio refused to play his debut single.

"I remember my manager talking to the music directors at radio and they'd say 'Hell will freeze over before we play that guy's record, he's not a musician, he's a TV star.' The great irony was that long before Neighbours came along, I was that poor sucker playing guitar in places like the Bayview Hotel, the Cessnock Workers club etc," he recalls. "They would say I have no credibility and that I can't play. The truth of the matter is I probably played more pubs than some of the so-called credible artists back in the day."

Despite the lack of radio support, the song was a commercial hit here and in the UK, and ultimately lead him on the path to performing on stage. Unlike many stars of former hit TV shows, McLachlan is proud of his success at an early age and acknowledges it as part of his decades-long career on stage and screen.

But at age 52, what brings him back to a role he first played almost three decades ago? He picks up the guitar and strums. "How do you do? I... see you've met my... faithful handyman." He stops. "Can you imagine coming out night after night and hearing the crowd go nuts to that? It's so addictive and it's fantastic. And in Queensland, some nights I'm surprised we all weren't arrested, including the audience. The show they put on was every bit as entertaining as what we were doing on stage."

Craig McLachlan stars in Ricard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show from 17 Jan at QPAC